poppy harlow has been in the heart of providence, rhode island, which is really in a virtual lockdown. >> reporter: there's a restaurant, can't even see it anymore. that's the change we've had in the last hour. the pellets that ali and jason are feeling are coming right at us. there goes my hat. i'm sure cnn will give me another one. it's whiteout conditions here. it's 34 degrees and that's the huge problem. that's why you have 87,000 customers in rhode island alone without power. because the snow is building up on the power lines. it's bringing them down. we just talked to the mayor's representative. he told us in providence alone, they've had 60 calls of downed trees or downed power lines. they have 120 vehicles on the road alone here in providence. they closed the entire i-95 corridor down. haven't done that since the great blizzard of '78. they made it at 5:00, illegal for any cars to be on the road. this is why. we're standing in the center of providence, downtown, complete whiteout. it's going to be like this at least through 6:00 a.m. >> poppy harlow in providence, rhode island